Roger Baldwin, prosecuting, said: "One can hardly imagine a more tragic and heart-rending set of circumstances than in this case.

He said he was careless, it was a mistake and that 'I'm going to regret it for a long time, I hope the lad is OK, I wish I had not done it'Roger Baldwin, prosecuting

"At the time of this incident Mr Parry had not taken a further test and therefore had no licence to drive and of course it follows he had no insurance."

Parry and his girlfriend had spent the night at his grandmother's house in Skelmersdale when he decided to take her car, the court was told.

He ploughed into the moped when he pulled out onto the A577 Wigan Road from the junction with Whiteleys Lane.

David, who suffered a number of fractures and a "nasty injury" to his left heel, died after complications from surgery four days later.

When interviewed by police before the teenager's death, Parry said he simply did not see the moped.

Mr Baldwin said: "He said he was careless, it was a mistake and that 'I'm going to regret it for a long time, I hope the lad is OK, I wish I had not done it'."

'Distress and loss'

Parry, of Birch Green, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to causing death by careless driving and causing death by aggravated vehicle taking.

He had his licence revoked nearly two years ago after receiving six penalty points for driving without insurance and was ordered to retake his test but never bothered, the court heard.

Andrew Ford, defending, said his client wanted to say sorry to the family of Mr Allan.

"He wants the family to know that he is going to regret this for the rest of his life," said Mr Ford.

Judge Simon Newell, sentencing, said no death could ever be measured.

"There is nothing I can do by whatever sentence to rid the family of the deceased from their distress and loss," he said.

"That to them will be a life sentence and equally because I find that the defendant - although he behaved criminally at the time - had the decency to remain at the scene and has suffered genuine remorse since that his will be a life sentence irrespective of what I do."